Archive for Desi-Indian

Someone Has Stolen My Identity for RootsCamp!

// February 10th, 2010 // No Comments » // Desi-Indian

Thanks for featuring my biography New Organizing but I think I am a victim of identity theft. Who is this PREMA LAI person?
I think @neworganizing desperately needs to hire more people ... on Twitpic

Credit goes to NOI for fixing it within a few hours, though these things really shouldn’t happen. This actually isn’t the first time I have been called “PREMA LAI” by someone at NOI. I was ticked off when it happened at a RI4A summit last June and made a fuss about it. I wonder if the same mistake would be made again and again, if NOI hired someone with knowledge about India and Indians (read: people of color desperately needed in new media organizing). Then again, it can be solved by just having someone who can copy-paste and spell properly.

I am proud of my name and have been told that it suits me. PRERNA means Inspiration (popularized by the TV serial Kasauti Zindagi Kay) and LAL is a common Indian last name in both India and Fiji and it means red (color). I am not Indo-Chinese from Singapore; I am an ethnically Indian Fiji Islander.

Spelling my name wrongly (and those of other ethnic minorities), consistently, is yet another way of othering through a labeling process and a denial of our unique ethnic identities. I think I should start mis-spelling the names of white Americans in a counter-hegemonic labeling process.

Make Sure to Go Watch My Name is Khan – Feb 12

// February 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Desi-Indian

Shahrukh Khan and Kajol–two of the biggest Bollywood celebrities–made history when they rang the bell to open up NASDAQ on Monday.

I am not sure what promoting capitalism has to do with the film.  Does Shahrukh Khan’s character (Rizwan Khan) in the movie also ring the NASDAQ ‘ghanti’ to reunite with his loved one? But anyway, it seems part of the heavy marketing scheme for a movie that promises entertainment value as well as progressive thought.

Watch the NASDAQ event here:

Best Songs from Bollywood – 2009

// January 16th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Desi-Indian

Want to try out new, ‘exotic’ International music and just don’t know what to listen to after seeing the gazillion Indian music albums out there? Well, here is a listing of some of the best songs from Bollywood in 2009, in my opinion.

New York – Tune Jo Na Kaha

3 Idiots – Behti Hawa Sa Tha

(more…)

3 Idiots: Review

// January 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Desi-Indian

All is more than well. On the way to breaking all Bollywood records, 3 Idiots is actually a simple movie with a touching message. It reminds one of Dil Chahta Hai. It is once again, male-oriented, and Aamir Khan outshines everyone else. But the movie speaks to everyone: Don’t run after success. Make yourself capable enough so that success runs after you.

Indian students are widely expected to become engineers, doctors and scientists and pressured by their parents to do extremely well in their studies. This pressure, combined with a system of education that promotes memorization over critical understanding, does not make for the best way of teaching. The film provides a critique of this narrative in the form of Rancho (Aamir Khan) who questions conventional norms and standards as a student at the Imperial College of Engineering, and succeeds in guiding his friends towards real success before disappearing mysteriously.

It’s hilarious. The ‘balatkar’ speech where Rancho replaces the word ‘chamatkar’ (miracle) with ‘balatkaar’ (rape) will go down in history as an epic success in dialogue writing. The movie leaves us with the message of becoming a thinker, not a participant in the wild rat race of life. It’s easily the best movie of 2009.

Priyanka Chopra in Saheli-Ana: Why Should Boys Have All the Fun?

// December 31st, 2009 // No Comments » // Desi-Indian, DesiPundit, Videos

I can turn my brain off for a second and enjoy this video of Priyanka Chopra in a new avatar:

Of course, I don’t understand why the other woman has to appear dressed like a man to denote that kind of ‘Dostana.’ This adoption of gayness for humor is a troubling trend that reveals the deeper homophobic attitude of India. Why on earth is a gay relationship funny and any different than a straight relationship?

So far, only men have been acting gay for humor on the big Bollywood stage (Saif Ali Khan and Shahrukh Khan have entertained us with their gay act for far too many Filmfare Awards), but now Priyanka takes the cake for going a notch further.

Anil Kapoor in American Series 24. Kudos But…

// December 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // Desi-Indian, DesiPundit

Longtime Bollywood icon Anil Kapoor (known in America as the anchor in Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire) has been roped in for some cameos in Season 8 of the hit television cult series 24.

That’s great for the presence of Indians on American television but what is up with Indian actors playing the role of “Middle Easterners” in Western scripts? It is certainly a trend.

Anil Kapoor plays “Omar Hassan” in 24, a Middle Eastern leader who comes to the U.S. on a peace-making mission.

In I Can’t Think Straight, Bollywood actor Lisa Ray was roped in to play a Jordanian (with a really bad accent, might I add). She’s forgiven due to her unforgivable chemistry with Sheetal Sheth.

But wait. Why not actually roping in an actor from the Middle East to play these roles?

Kal Penn, also of Indian origin, has already done a stint on the series, albeit as a terrorist. I suppose some particular features serve as a proxy for ‘terrorism’ as much as being Latino serves as a proxy for ‘illegal status.’

Of course, there is a difference between mis-representing and under-representing.  Ben Kingsley played Gandhi with finesse and character.  Straight actors on the L Word portayed their gay roles with compelling performances that made us doubt their heterosexuality.

Still, it begs the question – Why not increase the visibility of Arab-Americans and other peoples from Central Asia and the Middle East on the global platform and tackle stereotypes by giving them such positive roles? There is not a lack of people who can perform in such roles.

Cover Up Kareena!

// November 15th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Desi-Indian, DesiPundit, Gender

Never one to be a Kareena Kapoor fan (let alone a Saifeena one), when the Shiv Sena took out a ‘morcha’ against the new poster of Kareena in Kurbaan, with her back in nude, I momentarily agreed to not just cover her back but the whole poster. Just get the ungodly and offending sight of her away from my eyes.

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/834/kurbaan.png

A Shiv-Sena activist said:

“We objected to the posters as they showed the actress semi-nude and we found to be in very bad taste. It violates our Indian culture.”

Well, a semi-nude Kareena is certainly bad taste but I am not sure it violates our culture. Maybe all our other senses. Still, it is a wonder how and why the Shiv Sena is attacking the posters a whole month after they were plastered all over the city.

My ragging on Kareena is in jest. She has the freedom to pose with her back nude. We have the freedom to avert our eyes. The Shiv Sena has a right to take to the streets for our pure entertainment, and as a result, create more publicity for the movie that they are ‘morally policing.’

What is disgusting about claims of ‘bad taste’ by the Sena is that Kareena is the one being morally policed even though we see no ‘offending’ parts of her body. Why is Saif Ali Khan allowed to show his bare-chest? Why isn’t anyone covering him up? Double-standard much?

Gunda-gardi (gangster tactics) is not new to the Sena. A month ago, the Sena objected to the use of Mumbai’s name, Bombay, in Wake Up Sid (another Johar production), and he bent over backwards to insert a disclaimer in the film.

Wake Up Sid turned out to be a hit. I wish the same luck to Kurbaan.

Maybe the Sena is lucky for Johar after all.

I wonder what they think about L word posters.

Paper: The Construction of Indian-Hindu nationalism and Implications of India’s Future as a Postcolonial State

// October 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Desi-Indian, Political Theory

This paper is a critique of International Relations and an approach to the question of India using an alternative nationalism model. Specifically, this is a Subaltern Studies approach to doing International Relations, which serves the purpose of discarding the notion of India as a homogeneous state unit and elaborating on the contestations involved for the existence of a post-colonial state such as India, as an ‘Other’ in a colonial order.

Quote from the paper:

We cannot speak about the need for nuclear non-proliferation without realizing the global coloniality behind it and why nation-states would go against the global norm to define a place for themselves in the global order. We cannot speak about development without realizing the colonial nature of global economic governance. A subaltern perspective, doing history and international relations from below, studying meanings and claims, allows us to explore these issues outside of the limited scope of existing IR theories.

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